The Tigers want to avoid a drawn out bidding war for Ryota Igarashi and would like to know what they are going to do before the end of the month -- if they cannot get some sort of commitment from Igarashi, they will likely move forward with their plans to find a player on the overseas market.

Incidentally, there are some indications that Igarashi may wait until December to decide where he will play next year. That does not mean the Tigers would not be open to some sort of preliminary agreement that would become effective should he decide to play in Japan.

A number of teams, like Softbank, Rakuten, and Yokohama, are said to be interested in Igarashi.

The Seibu Lions are interested in Bryan LaHair. A number of NPB teams have shown interest in LaHair, but his high price tag, which has been estimated to be about 300M yen, may be too much of a risk. Source: Sponichi 11/13/2012